I'm a Libertarian living in Humboldt County, CA. I've lived here in Eureka since 1973 and joined the Libertarian Party in 1992. This blog will mostly focus on local political issues, but I may stray into state and national issues as well, when I can't help myself. Please post your comments by clicking on the "comments" link at the bottom of each post. Although I do moderate comments, you need not be a registered user to post them.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

The Citizen's Legislature Act

The Sacramento Bee has a partial list of ballot initiatives circulating right now. They say there might be over 50(!) after all have been cleared by the Secretary of State's office. Yikes!

I won't comment on all of them now but The Citizen's Legislature Act, which would revert the state legislature back to part time, is the most important one of the bunch. I realize the idea of a part- time legislature frightens a lot of people in this state- so many Californians wanting someone to govern every aspect of their lives- but it's the best thing we can do in both the short and long run.

Remember that California used to have a part- time legislature decades ago and things went pretty smooth. Many other states do fine with them. The problem is full- time legislators have way too much time on their hands, judging from the sort of stuff that comes out of Sacramento. The vast majority of it is wasteful, unnecessary or an assault on you or somebody else's freedoms.

We likely can't roll back the clock and take back everything they've done over the years but, by limiting the time they spend in Sacramento, we can at least slow down the pace of future damage.

5 Comments:

Ernrst Callenbeck wrote a small pamphlet called Citizen's Legislature in the 80s. His idea was for the Assembly to adopt this plan with Senators elected by the people. Well worth seeking out this tome.

I guess one could argue that they already only work part-time,and spend the rest of their time rubbing elbows.I mean,I once went to a conference where Chesbro was speaking,when he finally did,he spoke about broad generalities for about 5 minutes at most.And after that,any follow up in the following weeks were scant on his offices part,and when some correspondence occurred,it was through his staff.So really,this sort of initiative could really be something that they would like,as now they would have an added excuse as to why they can't get things in order,while still collecting a nice salary.

With what they currently make, I don't think it could be $18K a year. They would band together to convince voters that a full time job is absolutely necessary and with a lot of voters that vote not knowing what they are actually voting for could probably remain full time.